Teck Cominco ups cash offered for Inco

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Teck Cominco Ltd. on Monday improved the cash portion of its acquisition offer for Canadian nickel miner Inco Ltd., leading to the possibility that Phelps Dodge Corp. won't end up buying any miner after having been in a position as recently as last week to potentially buy two.

Teck Cominco (TCK.A)(TCK.B) said it's revised its offer for Inco
N, +0.00%
(N), now offering up to C$9.1 billion in cash and up to 132.2 million Class B shares for the company.

Teck Cominco
TCK
said the overall value of its bid works out to C$82.50 ($73.12) a share, with 43% more cash on the table and 7.5% fewer shares than what it had previously bid.

Phelps Dodge
PD, +2.01%
is offering C$20.25 a share in cash and 0.672 of its shares for Inco. At Friday's close, that values Inco at C$82 a share.

"Inco shareholders have a choice between the certainty and value of our offer and the highly conditional offer by Phelps Dodge which will not close until September, at the earliest, if at all. We have all regulatory approvals we require to complete our offer on August 16," Teck Cominco said in a statement.

Inco last Friday pulled its bid for Falconbridge Ltd. (FAL)
FAL, -1.72%
another Canadian mining company, after failing to win sufficient shareholder support.

Phelps Dodge had agreed to proceed with buying Inco regardless of its success or failure in winning Falconbridge.

U.S.-listed shares of Inco moved fractionally higher in early action, while Teck Cominco added more than 1% and Phelps Dodge rallied more than 5%.

Earlier Monday, Prudential Equity Group upgraded mining company Phelps Dodge to overweight from underweight, citing diminished business risks and financial dilution in connection with Inco dropping its bid for Falconbridge.

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